On the way home

On Wednesday morning, one of the first things I did was check out the weather. I couldn't help it as I walked out of the hotel in the morning to find snow. Yes, it is still April. Weather.com had a snow advisory for much of central Wisconsin, with areas like Madison expecting 7-10 inches.
Ouch. Luckily my class was only a half-day on Wednesday, so I was able to get an early start. I think that if I had left in the afternoon the combination of regular Chicago rush hour with all the snow would have just been murder. As it was, the Interstates were certainly not clear - there was stop and go traffic as I made my way from downtown out I-90 westbound into Wisconsin. One downside of having picked up a bunch of these southern Wisconsin counties in previous trips is that it took me about 3 hours (and about 175 miles) before I hit my first "new" county - Marquette (#51). A few miles later, I exited I-39 north and headed east on WI-23. It was about a 16 mile one-way jaunt to pick up Green Lake (#52), but there was no other better way to do it. If you look at the Wisconsin county map, you can see that most of the counties are twice the size of Marquette and Green Lake. I'm not sure why they decided to split them so small, but it's annoying. I had looked for ways to cut out some mileage on the way back by diagonally getting to I-39 one exit further north (either by county roads or a jaunt on WI-22), but with the snow, I decided to just go back the way I came.

Continuing on I-39, I sauntered through Waushara (#53) and Portage (#54) before setting out for my 2nd out and back of the day, this time on County Road W, westbound to pick up Wood (#55). The road itself was not too bad (you could typically do 30-40 mph), but there were MAJOR snow drifts on parts of the road that made driving "interesting". At CR U, I turned right and did a little British-style driving to make sure I was in Wood. Driving through Kellner, WI, I got myself a bit unsure of where I was headed, but stayed the course and found myself on WI-54 eastbound, headed back to I-39. In Plover, I stopped to refuel and get some Wendy's. Here you can see a bit of the weather I was dealing with:


Somwhere in Plover, I first started seeing signs that WI-54 was closed for construction. As I started looking at the map to try and find an alternate route, I saw another sign that listed that it was open to I-39. Since that was as far as I was taking it, I breathed a sigh of relief. Continuing on I-39 and then US-51 northbound picked up Marathon (#56) and Lincoln (#57). In Merrill, US-51 ends its limited-access-ness (at least according to Mapquest), and I took the last "exit" to WI-64 and then WI-17, and headed northeasterly. After about 20 miles I got into Langlade county (#58) and I started looking for my turnoff on to CR Q. Just after the county line, I saw a turnoff to the right, but I continued straight because I was expecting to go left. It took me about a 1/2 mile or so to realize that I had missed my turn. Within a few miles I picked up another county, Oneida (#59), and after one near false-start, successfully navigated my way around the northern side of Pelican Lake to US-45. I believe it was here that I saw a sign for a "Church of Jesus Christ Restoration Branch". My first reaction was that this was some sort of LDS splinter group. I tried to do some Googling to verify this hypothesis, but was unable to confirm. So, either it's some other similarly named church, or it's just too small for me to find (I mean this was a hand-made sign staked up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere...)

CR Q goes around the north side of Pelican Lake, with CR G going around the south side. Both dead-end into US 45, but about 6 miles apart. Since I was heading north, CR Q seemed like the logical bet, but the online mapper had suggested CR G. I wasn't sure if that was a particular reason or not (like CR Q didn't really exist or was in crappy condition?) but when I got to the T-intersection at the west side of the lake, there were signs pointing left for US 45 north and right for US 45 south, so I took CR Q around the north side. It wasn't a problem, except for the general snowiness.

A few miles north, I did an out and back on US 8 to pick up Forest (#60) and then continued for another hour or so north on US 45, picking up Vilas (#61) and then on into Michigan. Ahhhh the good ol' U.P. Before this little trip, the sum content of my knowledge of the UP consisted of the fact that my aunt Bonnie was originally from there, and that Michigan was forced to accept it in exchange for a strip of land on the Ohio border following the Toledo War. That may be a slight exaggeration. I continued on US 45 into Gogebic (#62) and Ontonagon (#63) counties, then took M-26 into Houghton county(#64). In the city of Houghton, I crossed the Portage Lake Lift bridge over the Portage waterway. I did not notice this when I crossed (it being dark), but from the Wikipedia page and picture, it appears that in the summer, the bridge raises to an intermediate level to allow boats to cross under while still maintaining road traffic. After crossing over into the town of Hancock, I turned left onto US-41 and followed that north to Keewenaw (#65). There was not a county welcome sign (that I saw anyways). My map had me looking for the "town" of Kearsarge, which I did not see. I should have been looking for Allouez (which was on my map but I just didn't notice it). I passed through there and when I got to Mohawk, MI, I saw that it was definitely in Keweenaw county, so I turned around. There was a welcome sign for Houghton County going southbound though. I followed US-41 back the way I came, back over the bridge, and then into Baraga (#66). At this point, it was about 1:30 a.m. CDT, and I was feeling a bit tired, so I pulled into some gas station and took a little nap. I ended up sleeping for about an hour and then set on. No more than a minute after I was back on the road, I passed into Marquette (#67). A few miles later, I turned right on to M-95 and made my way into Dickinson (#68) and then an out and back on M-69 West into Iron (#69). The original plan had me then taking M-69 east, but I found that it was a much better option to continue on M-95 south into Iron Mountain, and then make 2 short out and backs on US-2 West and US-141 South to pick up the final 2 Wisconsin counties on my trip, Florence (#70) and Marinette (#71). Trying to get these couunties from the Wisconsin side would have added significantly more time to my trip.

Back in Michigan on US-2 eastbound, I travelled uneventfully into Menominee (#72) and Delta (#73) into the city of Escanaba. I then rejoined US-41, this time going northbound, into Alger (#74). Then it was M-67 northbound, and just before I made the turn on to M-94 east, I pulled into another parking lot to take a nap. At this point it was about 5 a.m. (EDT now). I slept for about an hour again, and when I woke up and tried to pull out, the wheels just spun. I had been able to pull in due to my initial momentum, but with 3-5 inches of snow on the ground, I wasn't going anywhere from a standstill. I tried forward and reverse, but nothing. By now it was light out, and there were some cars driving by as I surveyed my options. I put it in neutral and got out of the car (it was still snowing lightly). I rocked the car back and forth a bit. Of course I couldn't move it by myself, but I moved it a bit. I got back in and I don't know if it was that or something else, but I was able to put it in reverse and spin myself a bit backwards, and then once I put it in drive I started going. Phew.

After a brief jaunt on M-94, I began an 80 mile trip on M-28 eastbound, through Schoolcraft (#75), Luce (#76) and Chippewa (#77), then M-123 to Mackinac (#78) and finally on to I-75 southbound. By this time, I was running kind of low on gas so I kept a lookout for gas stations. I figured there might be one at the onramp to 75, but nope. I crossed over the 2-mile Mackinac Bridge and my Upper Peninsula became AWFUL BLUE. The bridge was pretty cool. I was going to take a picture but you know, I've done that before and it just doesn't come out very exciting. Still, travelling between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron was kinda neat. The very first exit in the Lower Peninsula had a Shell station, but I couldn't tell if there was re-entry to 75, so I didn't stop. As I passed by, it did look like there was, but it was hard to tell since the interchange was an odd design. Passing through Emmet (#79) and Cheboygan (#80), I remained on the lookout for gas stations. The next 3 exits (about 20 miles) had no services! Finally, I was able to score some at the M-68 exit. The Interstate itself was not plowed very well - I was actually behind a pair of plow trucks, but even behind them it was still barely one lane wide. Inside the gas station, I took a pic of one of my favorite grammatical mistakes


At this point, I decided to punt on part of my plan. Originally, I was going to continue down 75 a bit to do an out and back to the west, picking up Otsego, Antrim and Charlevoix counties before heading east, but I decided that those counties would still be there later (deep breath), and in an effort to get home a little earlier, I instead headed east on M-68 into Presque Isle County (#81) and shortly thereafter, went south on M-33 into Montmorency (#82). From here on, the roads were pretty clear. I'm not sure if the more southern parts of Michigan just didn't get as much snow, or if I just gave the snowplows enough time to clear it out. I spent some time trying to find CR 624, which was going to cut off a few miles by taking a more direct route to M-32 east. With the snow, I debated whether or not to just stay on M-33 to M-32, but in the end stuck with the plan and went with the county roads. The county roads were not plowed as well (but still not that bad) - I think that in normal weather, taking these county roads would definitely be worth it, but with the snow, it was probably about a wash.

Just east of Hillman, I made it to M-32 and Alpena (#83) and then followed M-65 south into Alcona (#84). A brief out and back on M-72 got me Oscoda (#85) and then back on to M-65 into Iosco (#86) and Arenac (#87). Somewhere in here, I took my 3rd nap of the day, at a Shell station. Afterwards, I turned westbound on to Maple Ridge road which took me close to I-75. Before getting on the Interstate, I did an out and back south and northbound to pick up Ogemaw (#88) and Gladwin (#89). On I-75 southbound, I saw a sign



This is actually a replica that I found online from some other prison, but that's what it said (more or less). I took I-75 through Bay (#90) to M-84, which I followed southbound into Saginaw (#91). Turning around just south of the county line, I encountered my first instance of a Michigan left interchange. On the road, I thought that this was a new type of intersection which I had recently read about (a Continuous flow intersection), but it appears that these are different (though similar) types of interchanges. The Michigan left has been around for about 40 years, and is named that because it's not very common except for in (wait for it) Michigan. I saw several of these, especially later in the day as I went through Detroit.

Back on M-84 north, I skirted the southern edge of Bay City, where, hearkening back to the prison sign I saw earlier, I saw a billboard mentioning a wanted criminal named (I kid you not) Lando Calrissian Jones. East of the city, I passed a Meijer and made my way to M-25, which I took into Tuscola (#92). At Unionville, when M-25 headed north, I continued straight on Bay City-Forestville Road, which I took into Sanilac (#93). A brief out and back on M-53 picked up Huron (#94) and then I continued on M-53 south for 50 miles into Lapeer (#95). At Almont, MI, I did an out and back on Almont Road to pick up St. Clair (#96). I got lucky there as the road was not well marked in the city limits, so I took a guess as to which road was going to turn into the road I needed. Back on M-53 I entered Macomb (#97) for my final (new) county of the day. On the entry to Detroit, I passed by 32 mile road, which was the first time I noticed the Mile road numbering system, the most famous of which is 8 Mile.

From then, it was just a trip home on I-75. I did take my 4th and final nap of the day just over the Ohio border in a Meijer parking lot. Of cousre I stopped in first to check if there were any good sales for the week! I ended up getting home just after 11, so with the exception of my 4 hour-long naps, and taking the time zone into account, I was driving for 34 consecutive hours.

Chicago Trip 2, Day 3

Day 2 (Sunday) was a day of no (new) counties. At this point in my trips to Chicago, it takes quite a bit of work to pick up some new counties. I spent the day going to church, checking in and just relaxing.

But Monday was a day of some action. I left training and headed north. I had allowed 30 minutes in my schedule for "traffic" and heading north on I-94 did provide some traffic. Still, it wasn't that bad, but it didn't clear up until I was nearly in Wisconsin.

In Milwaukee, I headed up US-41 north, being the first of many (many!) limited-access highways I would travel today (not including Interstates which are of course also limited-access). About 2:30 into my trip, I picked up my first new county of the day, Fond du Lac (#38), which was followed shortly after by Winnebago (#39)

At this point I got onto US-10 / WI-441, which is (another!) limited-access highway, serving as a circular bypass around Appleton, WI. I got off at Oneida Road, which is a county-line type road. I attempted to take a sign of the county sign (Calumet (#40)), which was located up on the highway (while I was on the offramp) but traffic behind me was not amused and my camera was not cooperating. In any case, as past experiences have noted, it probably wouldn't have come out very well anyways :-)

Turning right around on Oneida Road, I got back on to WI-10 west. I got off on US-45 west, a road which for the first bit straddles the line between the counties of Outagamie (#41) and Waupaca (#42), before swerving to pick up both of them. At Clintonville, I headed NE on to WI-22 into Shawano (#43), and in the city of Shawano, I headed north onto WI-47/55. This took me into Menominee county and reservation (#44). Menominee county is coterminous with a Menominee Indian reservation. I enjoyed it for about 30 seconds before turning around. Of course it did get the Mah na mah na song stuck in my head for the rest of the night.

A note about that song. It's very catchy of course. If you haven't heard it, the Muppet version is of course the best, which you can watch on YouTube here. Warning: It is very catchy and if you watch it you will be singing it all day. Warning #2: If you come to my house, please do not sing it. If a crazed lunatic came up to me and said that if I didn't make one member of my family cry within the next 30 seconds, he would kill my entire family, this is how I would do it. I'm not sure why it is, but singing this song will cause my daughter to burst into tears. Which of course can be a problem since it's so dang catchy, it's hard to remember not to sing it.

Anyways......

Returning back on WI-47/55 into Shawano county, I turned left at the main intersection to continue on Business-29. The next step of my route had me going onto 29-East, another! limited-access highway. I had passed WI-29 south of Shawano, but I thought if I headed east on Business-29 it might bring me to 29 faster (and further-east). In the end, it was probably a wash - both ways were 25 mph for a few miles. I got off the highway at WI-160, which took me into the town of Pulaski. If you take a look at that link, you will see that the city of Pulaski somehow decided that it wanted the entirety of its city limits to be in Brown county (#45), so it took a chunk out of Shawano and Oconto (#46) counties. That meant that I had to take a short out-and-back on WI-32 north to pick up Oconto, but that wasn't a problem.

I took WI-32 to CR B East. Quick addendum on my post of yesterday, where I complained that county roads were numbered only on map sites and not "on the ground". Well, I mean except for Wisconsin. Wisconsin is all about the lettered county roads. I soon got on to US-41 south to I-43 south, which I took for a few miles circling around the frozen tundra of Lambeau field. Well, Green Bay anyways. I did not actually see the frozen tundra, since it was late and I didn't feel like making a detour, but I have no doubt that it was, in fact, frozen, given that it was snowing off and on all evening. Yes, it is April 9th, why do you ask?

I exited I-43 on to WI-57, which was a (nother, and this time un-marked) limited-access highway. By now, I was running low on gas, but gas stations were not prevalent. I really was not going to enjoy running out of gas up in the "point" of Wisconsin. I spent a few minutes on Google trying to figure out what 'Sconsinites call that little point that sticks out north of Green Bay. If anybody knows, leave it in the comments. I missed the turn off to one gas station, but then found another. It was a bit off of the highway, which was kind of annoying, but when I got there, I could tell why I had been led there


County sign!!! That would be Kewaunee county (#47). Back on the highway, I followed it north to get the county that's at the tip of the whatever-it's-called, Door (#48), and then it was time to turn around.


I thought that I was done picking up counties as I headed back to Chicago on I-43 south, but I had forgotten that I-43 would take me through Manitowoc (#49) and Sheboygan (#50), a total of 13 new counties for the day

Chicago Trip 2, Day 1

I got the rental car earlier this time, so I thought I'd get out a bit earlier this time. But when I went to load up the car, I found out that my hands-free cell phone earpiece was missing. I thought that I must have left it up in my car up at work, so I decided to drive up to Mason to get it. Of course, when I got there, it wasn't there either....

So then I drove down to church to score a free breakfast, said good-bye to the fam, and then (after a trip to Meijer) was on the road. I ended up officially "starting" my trip at 9 AM EDT.

The first part of the trip was the same as last week - down I-71 to Louisville. But this time, instead of turning west across southern Indiana, I continued southwards into Kentucky. After looping around "the 'Ville", I headed west on US-60. I passed by Fort Knox and the city of Radcliff, where I used to live back in the dizz-ay. That picked me up Meade (#1) and Breckinridge (#2). Near Hardinsburg, I got on to KY 261, which cut the corner of Hancock (#3) and then into Ohio (#4). KY 261 dead ended into KY 54, which I took southwards into Grayson (#5) and then to KY 79 and then the Western Kentucky Parkway. The WK Parkway did another cool corner-cutting, this time of Butler (#6), then back into Ohio county and then Muhlenberg (#7). Kentucky has a lot of these parkways. They all used to be toll roads (and some of them still are). But in a pretty cool thing, once the tolls have paid for the construction costs, by law, they must be turned into free roads. In another little tidbit, by law, free limited-access roads are not allowed to have commercialized rest stops. That is why rest-stops on I-71 for example only have bathrooms and picnic benches, rather than McDonalds and Shell. By federal regulations, commercialized rest-stops are only allowed on toll roads (more info here). But, the WK Parkway was grandfathered here because its rest stop was built when it WAS a toll road. When I saw that the rest stop contained an Arbys, I knew I had to stop! Tragically however, the shake machine was broken.

Back on the road, I soon exited the parkway onto US 431 South into Logan county (#8). Immediately after the county line, I went SW onto KY 1293 and then west on KY 107 into Todd (#9) and Christian (#10). I turned off of 107 onto KY 800. At this point, my route had me taking the Pennyrile Parkway north and then back on to the WK parkway. But in looking at the map, I thought that if I took KY 1348 to KY 109, I could cut off a few minutes (by going diagonally NW instead of N and then W). Since the state roads had been a pretty good quality, I decided to go for it. It turned out pretty well - but I don't think it saved me much time. I did pick up Hopkins (#11) and then moved west on the WK parkway into Caldwell (#12). I got off on KY 91 and then in Fredonia, transferred north on US 641 into Crittenden (#13), and then back south on 641 into Lyon (#14).

Next was an out and back on I-24 East to KY 139 south into Trigg (#15) and then back on I-24 west into Livingston (#16) and Marshall (#17). After crossing over the Land between the Lakes, I headed south on the Purchase Parkway. At Benton, I got onto US-641 Spur. After a few miles, I was supposed to turn onto KY 783, but I apparently missed that. I was then supposed to get on to KY 80. Strangely enough, KY 80 is now called KY 402, though luckily both routes were signed. I went west on that and then an out and back on KY 299 to Calloway (#18). Back on KY 80 into Graves (#19) and then after a brief jog on KY 131, I rejoined the Purchase Parkway into Hickman (#20) and Fulton (#21). The original route had me taking KY 307 North here, but instead, I took it south through the town of Fulton. Why would I do something so crazy? More counties of course!

I had noticed a few days ago that my route would take me right here towards the KY-TN border. So I thought hey, bonus county in Tennessee! But then a careful examination of the map showed that not one, but TWO counties in Tennessee. I had a bit of trouble getting lost in Fulton, KY (or was that South Fulton, Tennessee?), but eventually I did make it into Obion and Weakley counties, Tennessee (#22 and #23). I was on KY state route 129, which runs along the border, but because it was a Kentucky route, it only gave me Kentucky county markers. KY-129 was quite the king of roads - in the 2 miles or so I was on it, it went through 5 counties (3 KY and 2 TN), though you'd have to of course travel British style to pick up all of them. After retracing my steps (well only the steps that weren't part of the time I spent getting lost) back through Fulton, I did take KY 307 north back through Fulton and Hickman counties and into Carlisle (#24). East on US-62 got me into Ballard (#25) and McCracken (#26) and then KY-286 took me back to the Ohio River.

At Wickliffe, KY I joined 3 US Routes: 51, 60 and 62. I crossed over some river which I thought was the bridge over the Ohio, which freaked me out because then I thought I had missed my turn. But it all worked out. About 3-4 miles later, I actually crossed over the Ohio, into Illinois and Alexander county (#27). Although I wanted to head north, I instead headed south. Why? Say it with me everybody...."MORE COUNTIES!!" A quick turn south crossed over the Mississippi (as the crow flies, approximately 482 miles further south from the last time I crossed it) and I was into Mississippi County, Missouri (#28).


That picture kind of looks like it was taken out the car window with one hand while the driver was going over a big bridge at 50+ mph. Hmmmmm... Anyways - back into Illinois, I went through Cairo, Illinois, which Wikipedia told me is pronounced like the syrup, not like the city in Egypt. The one thing I knew about Cairo is that it was the site of the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi, which I thought was picture-worthy. I-57 got me into Pulaski (#29). I got off at Exit 18 and went eastbound through various county and state roads through the city of Karnak and Massac county (#30). Then I took US-45 into Johnson (#31) and then I-24 north one exit and on county roads back west into Union (#32). Then I took I-57 North into Williamson (#33) and Franklin (#34).

At some point here I had just gotten gas (and dinner) and I was talking on the phone to Carolyn and she got a call on the other line. She got a call on the other line and clicked over. After a few minutes she clicked back and told me that it had been Citibank. Apparently she had just gone out and gotten gas for the van, using my same credit card. Since it is probably not very common that the same card is used to buy gas in 2 states a few hundred miles apart within an hour of each other, it had been flagged as potential fraud. She had told them that it was all good, but I was impressed that they had taken the time to call, so.... Yay Citibank!

Anyways, I took the IL-149 exit and headed west through Zeigler and Royalton, where I turned on to CR 13 and into Jackson (#35), where it became CR 14. In scenic Elkville, I turned on to CR 8. One annoying thing about the difference between Mapquest and actual roads on the ground is that Mapquest likes to call roads things like "CR 8". Whereas there are very rarely signs for county roads with their actual numbers - county roads have actual names (like, in this case, W Board Street). Now, to be fair to Mapquest, if you zoom in far enough it does say that, but the wide-out view just has the little square 8. I took CR 8 west and then got onto IL 13/127 northbound, following IL-13 when they split, getting Perry (#36) and Randolph (#37).


One good thing about driving around on rural roads in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night is that nobody seems to care if you just stop in the road, get out of your car and take (a few) pictures. Not that I know anything about that, of course. Of course, as you can see, it still didn't really help my picture-taking skills. If you scrunch down and kind of look at the picture from the bottom, you can kind of tell that it says Randolph County. The rest of the night was just heading north to get to the Tocco's in Peoria, where I stayed the night. I was awful tired, but not too tired to get a chuckle out of the sign they put on my room.

Chicago Trip 2: Electric Boogaloo

If you missed out on the chance to see my exciting adventures in Chicago a few weeks ago, you can read about them here:

Day 0 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Or you could, you know, scroll down. For some reason, when doing the blog, at the end it said 124 counties, though a comparison of my before and after mob-rule maps (which you can see on the Day 7 post) clearly says 128 counties (counting the Edgar County, IL debacle)

So I am being sent back to Chicago this upcoming week. As always, stay tuned to this blog for daily updates. The goals for this week are 97 counties. I don't want to spoil things, but let me just leave you with the following anecdote.

Suppose that you asked 100 people, Family Feud style, and asked them what places one might be likely to visit on the way from Chicago to Cincinnati, that the top 5 answers on the board would not include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that nary a single soul would have even considered thinking about mentioning it, much less getting it past the part of their brain that censors out stupid ideas.

And.... let's just leave it at that for now :-D

Chicago Trip, Day 7

The final day of my trip had arrived. Carolyn had a book club Friday evening, so she had instructed me to get home in time (7:30 or 8 or so) for her to go to that. As such, I got up ear-lie and was out the door by 6:45 AM.

South out of Peoria on I-155, I got off at Exit 115, followed some county roads west and then south to pick up Menard (#106) and then back onto I-55 to Champaign, where I took I-72 westbound into Sangamon (#107), Morgan (#108) and Scott (#109).

At some point in there I was feeling kind of tired, so I pulled off at a gas station and took a little nap for about 1/2 hour. This would come back to haunt me. I headed down IL-100, which I think is Illinois' answer to the king of all roads. While not nearly as nice as the King, who winds through 11 counties in 119 miles (and 8 counties in only 58!), IL-100 did wind through 4 counties in 40 miles - the aforementioned Scott, Pike (#110), Greene (#111) and Jersey (#112). As has been noted before in this space - the king likes to jog - that's how he gets so many counties.

At Hardin, IL, I crossed over the Illinois River on to IL-16 which I followed for 30 miles into Macoupin (#113). Near Royal Lakes, I pulled an audible, that in retrospect was probably a bad move. The plan had been to continue on IL-16 until it reached I-55. In looking at the map though, it seemed like if I cut south, I would spend just about the same number of miles, but end up 8 miles south on I-55. The roads I followed though turned out to be through cities - including in Mount Olive where EVERY BLOCK had a stop sign. The historic "Route 66" markers were not enough to ease my pain. I eventually did find my way into Morgan County (#114), though I did not see the county line sign until the way back - I ended up going about 2 miles too far.

Then it was time for more Interstate fun. I-55 took me through Madison county (previously visited) and then I toured the eastern part of the St. Louis beltway, picking up St. Clair (#115) and Monroe (#116) before heading east on I-64 towards home.

And here I experienced another annoyance. On my trip here, I had done an out and back to
pick up Clinton county, but now I sailed through Clinton on I-64, rendering my previous out and back worthless. It is annoyances like this that I strive to avoid, which is one reason why I hate to leave counties on the table, so to speak. After Clinton came Washington (#117), which I had not realized I was going to hit, and means one less county needed on next week's journey, though it does leave Randolph County kind of annoyingly "out there".

Anyways, Washington was the last (new) county in Illinois, leaving me at 92 out of 102 - just 10 left for next week's adventure, should that come to pass. As I crossed into Indiana, another out and back from last Saturday was rendered meaningless, as I sailed through Posey County, IN.

A few miles into Indiana, I got off at IN-37 for a quick out and back into Pike (#118), though again, I went further than I needed to due to not having a printed out map of where the county border exactly was. No more new counties until I headed north on IN-37 into Orange (#119). At this point I realized that somehow, I had gotten behind schedule. I don't know if it was poor planning, or the hour I lost moving east, or the nap or what, but I pulled an audible, giving up on Lawrence county and headed east on IN-56 then north on IN-39 and east on IN-256 through Jackson (#120) and Scott (#121).

At I-65, I saw signs that IN-256 was closed to thru traffic. I pulled off to the side of the road and found a workable alternative North on 65 then east on IN-250, getting Jennings (#122) and Jefferson (#123). Maneuvering around the Jefferson proving ground ( Some sort of military base it appears) got me on to IN-62 to pick up my final county of the trip, Switzerland (#124). I was trying to get home as fast as I could, but these last few roads (IN-250 and IN-62) were QUITE windy. Then I ran into Friday night casino traffic in Lawrenceburg, so I got home a bit later than I was hoping.

All in all, it was quite a crazy week. I dropped off the car Saturday morning and the guy was like "You did some driving!" It was 3581 miles total for the week. For a comparison, that would be longer than the longest Interstate in the US (3099 miles) as well as longer than the distance between Seattle and Key West (3510 miles). Hee hee I'm silly.

The before map:





And the after:

Chicago Trip, Day 6

Day 6 was my last day of training. As such, I figured that it was likely that we would be ending kind of early. In fact one of the guys in my class had a plane to catch and had to leave by 3, so we ended right around there and I headed off.

At the I-355 toll plaza, I used my I-PASS and it actually worked! I headed south on I-55. The only new county I picked up for quite awhile was Livingston (#92) - all the other ones I had already visited on my various trips. Around 4 or so, I was getting a bit hungry. I noted that I was passing the exit for Dwight, which I have heard from many sources is the tourism capital of Illinois, if not the world. Also, very conveniently, it had a coveted Arby's, so I pulled off and went to get some dinner. I got out (rather than using the drive-thru) and ordered my standard Beef and Cheddar value meal, with a vanilla shake. The girl at the cashier's station hit some buttons and came back with "$9.34". Wha-huh? I expressed some disbelief that this could be possibly right, but she was staunch in saying that yup, that was indeed right. The base combo meal was $5.99, and I did "value-size" it, and I would expect somewhat of an upcharge for getting a shake instead of a pop, but there was no way it was coming up 9 bucks. We went back and forth for awhile, and I didn't want to get too irate in order for my food to remain spit-free, but eventually she hit some more buttons and came back with $7-something. That still seemed a bit high, but I went with it.

I continued back on I-55 South for about 100 miles or so, passing the Bloomington-Normal metroplex until exiting the highway at US-136 west. I followed that west into Logan (#93), Mason (#94), and then, crossing over the Illinois River, Fulton (#95). Immediately after crossing the Illinois river, I turned back around into Mason County and headed south into Cass (#96). At Beardstown, I got on to US-67 West into Schuyler (#97) and then IL-103 to US-24, which got Brown (#98) and Adams (#99). A county road then took me north into Hancock (#100), which was of course my 100th county of the trip, as well as the 3rd straight county (and 8 out of 14 for the day) that shares a name with an Ohio county.

I was talking to Carolyn on the phone right now and she commented about how Illinois was a bunch of county-name stealers. Since of course Wikipedia has pages titled List of Ohio county name etymologies and List of Illinois county name etymologies, I thought I'd do a brief breakdown of all the counties that the 2 states share.

• Adams - Ohio named for John Adams and Illinois for John Quincy.
• Brown - both for Gen. Jacob Brown
• Carroll - both for Charles Carroll of Carrolton
• Champaign - in a truly craw-sticking moment, the Illinois Wikipedia page says "Named for Champaign County, Ohio" The nerve!!
• Clark - both for George Rogers Clark
• Clinton - Ohio for VP George Clinton, Illinois for NY Governor DeWitt Clinton
• Crawford - Illinois for Sec. of War William Crawford, Ohio possibly for him or also for a different William Crawford
• Fayette - both for the Marquis de la Fayette
• Fulton - both for steamboat inventor Robert Fulton
• Greene - both for Nathaniel Greene
• Hamilton - both for Alexander Hamilton
• Hancock - both for John Hancock
• Hardin - Ohio named for John Hardin, who was killed by Indians. Illinois' page says it was named for Hardin County, Kentucky, which was named after Hardin. At least Ohio has some reason for it - he was killed in nearby Shelby County, OH.
• Henry - both for Patrick Henry
• Jackson - both for Andrew Jackson
• Jefferson - both for Thomas Jefferson
• Knox - both for Henry Knox
• Lake - Ohio for Lake Erie, Illinois "for the many small lakes in and around the county" i.e. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME
• Lawrence - both for James Lawrence, best known for his cry "Don't give up the ship"
• Logan - Ohio forGen. Benjamin Logan "who fought Indians there", Illinois for John Logan
• Madison - both for James Madison
• Marion - both for the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion
• Mercer - both for Hugh Mercer
  
• Monroe - both for James Monroe
• Montgomery - both for Gen. Richard Montgomery
• Morgan - both for Gen. Daniel Morgan
• Perry - both for Commodore Perry, but this seems a little like county-stealing too, as the battle of Put-in-Bay, for which Com. Perry is famous, is AT LEAST IN OHIO.
• Pike - both for Zebulon Pike
• Putnam - both for Israel Putnam
• Richland - Illinois "named for Richland County, Ohio" GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
• Shelby - both for Isaac Shelby
• Stark - both for John Stark
• Union - Ohio - for the Union of 4 counties from which it was formed (Delaware, Franklin, Madison, and Logan). Illinois - for the federal union which was threatened by the Civil War
• Warren - both for Joseph Warren
• Washington - both for George Washington
  
• Wayne - both for Mad Anthony Wayne

So a lot of these were just named for the same famous person. I can handle that, I mean it's not Illinois' fault that Ohio already had a Washington County. 30 states have a Washington County (and there is also a Washington Parish, Louisiana). But still, the county stealing of Champaign and Richland is pretty lame. Of course the Ohio reasons for those 2 counties ("For the French for "plain" as the land there was very flat" and "For the fertile soil there") are pretty lame too.

Also, when looking through the Illinois page, I have some definite questions about some of those etymologies listed. At least the Ohio one has actual sources from real books. For instance, let's take a look at Union County, Illinois, supposedly named "for the federal union which was threatened by the Civil War". On the surface, that sounds okay. Until you realize that it was formed in 1818!! I'm definitely going to have to call shenanigans on that one.

But anyways, back to the trip. I believe we left off in Hancock county. Oh, okay one more side-trip. Hancock is the site of many historical Mormon events, like Nauvoo and Carthage Jail. We've never been there, although we do want to go visit one day. So I'm talking to Carolyn about this and she starts talking about how if we go now she is going to pick up all these counties that I already have. So I made the vow that if I'm visiting Nauvoo, I'm going to loop south around through Kentucky and Missouri and Iowa, just to pick up some extra counties.

Back to the trip - IL-61 to US-136 to US-67 netted me McDonough (#101) and Warren (#102) and then 2 out and backs (on IL-116 and US-67) got me Henderson (#103) and Mercer (#104)

Then it was just a matter of US-34 to I-74 East to the Toccos where I was staying the night, with the final county of the evening being Knox (#105). As I was driving there, for the first time, I did start to wonder just what I was doing and why. Now, when I say for the first time, I mean the first time I wondered that. Pretty much every time I explain this obsession to other people, THEY wonder that.

Chicago Trip, Day 5

First, I did a little review of my Illinois map, and before we get started, a little county housekeeping:

1. I did go through Woodford County (#75) back on Saturday, between McLean and Tazewell. Since I am NOT going back over 3 posts and renumbering the successive 36 counties, you can just kind of think of it as county 38.5. Doing that (the renumbering) reminds me of the annoyance whenever I would buy a new CD. I would have to go through my entire CD tower, moving them all up one spot, to correctly insert the new CD into its place in alphabetical order. Naturally it was worse the earlier in the alphabet the artist came. Curse you, 4 Non Blondes!!

2. It appears that although it is marked on my Illinois map, I had actually never been in Edgar County. I blame the mob-rule Illinois map. The white lines on the states are the Interstates, and it definitely looks like the white line for I-70 goes through Edgar County (right on the middle of the IL-IN border). I suppose you could blame me for not double checking (as I did with most of the counties), but isn't it always more fun to blame other people? Even people that have made one of the awesomest websites in the world?

Anyways, on to the show.

I got out of class a little after 4 and started out. And I got my first experience (this week anyways) of some tasty Chicago traffic. This was by design actually (that I hadn't run into it before). When planning my routes, I tried to take possible Chicago traffic into account. If there was a route that might run into traffic, I would flip it around so that I would hit the traffic-y areas on the way BACK, at say, midnight, when there was not likely to be any traffic. In today's case however, flipping it around would have made the traffic WORSE. I took I-88 East from Downers Grove, to I-294 South to I-80 West to I-57 South. In thinking about it in hindsight, it probably would have made sense to take I-355 South to I-55 and then cut over to I-80 to I-57. Even though it's probably about 25 miles longer, I think it would have been faster. As it was, I sat in traffic in I-294 for about an hour before it cleared up when I got to I-80.

On I-57 Southbound, I made my way into Kankakee County (#76). Not wanting to repeat the hunger of yesterday, when I spotted a sign for the elusive Arby's, I got off the highway and tried to smell my way to some juicy curly fries. Nope. I couldn't find the Arby's. I must have just missed it, since it appears to be right on the main road, and I apparently drove by it twice. So I went back south, into Iroquois (#77), Ford (#78), and Champaign (#79). In the lovely town of Rantoul, Illinois, I was finally able to get me some Arby's, which was nice. Mmmm curly fries. I even "value-sized" my meal.

Back on I-57, I soon entered Douglas (#80) and got off the highway at Exit 203, where I took IL 133 to US 45 into Coles (#81). After turning around and heading back, when I went to turn back on to IL 133 East, what did I find? TRAIN!!!! Apparently ILDOT has its act together. Back on I-57 northbound for a jaunt, getting off at US 36 West for a few miles picking up Piatt (#82). I knew that US 36 also served as the northern boundary for Moultrie county as well, but I was not sure where the line was. The problem is that westbound you are never actually IN Moultrie, so there would never be a welcome sign. Normally in situations like this, the counties come together at a 4-corners style intersection, so the one welcome sign kind of acts for both. In this case however, I had to kind of crane my head around to see the Douglas County sign. It wasn't actually that difficult, and Moultrie (#83) was mine.

Back heading east, I finally was able to cross off Edgar (#84) (for real this time!). Turning north at Chrisman, Illinois, I found that they were doing work on the US-150 bridge over the Little Vermillion River, so I had to stop and wait my turn to cross the 1-lane bridge. US-150 took me into Vermillion county, Illinois (#85) and then east on Mill Rd into Vermillion County, Indiana (#86).

On IN 234, I made a grievous error. My route said that I should get on IN 63 N and then onto I-74 East. By the time I got onto I-74, I realized that I was too far west. I got off the highway and pulled out the map and realized I had missed Parke county! The route I should have been following was IN 234 to US 41. So I turned around and back tracked - this cost me about 35 minutes of "pansy time", With a clear head the next morning, I should have continued on I-74 and went out and back on US 41 to get Parke - that would have been only about 25 minutes of pansy time. Oh well. Back on IN 234, I got Parke (#87) and Fountain (#88) and then went up 41 to I-74 east for an out and back to Montgomery (#89).

And then it was time for a long haul north on US-41 through Warren (#90) and Benton (#91) counties, and then I-65 into Chicago. I ended up getting back to the hotel at about 12:45 a.m. One thing that was just crazy (though of course it makes sense) is how long it took me to get to my hotel after I was already in what I considered "Chicago"

Chicago Trip, Day 4

I got out of class early on Tuesday. There was a lab to finish things up, which I completed early, so I was on the road by about 3:30 and headed north. In other good news, Annoyance #3 from yesterday seems to not be a problem. I called the Illinois Toll people and apparently the change in DST (doing it 3 weeks earlier) has hosed all of their computers and the light systems. They said that they should have taken my car's license plate picture and they will match it up with my account and deduct it automatically. So that's nice

I headed north (west) on I-90 and into Wisconsin. It took me nearly an hour and a half (and 2 states!) before I got into my first new county, Dane (#54). I got off onto US 12, which serves as sort of a bypass loop for Madison, WI. A couple of interesting things from my time there. 1) At one point, I was simultaneously on 4 US highways at once (US 12, US 14, US 18 and US 151). 2) I crossed over some railroad tracks. Now, crossing railroad tracks is not a big deal in and of itself. But this was a limited-access divided highway! Imagine being on 71 or 275 or the Norwood Lateral and crossing over railroad tracks!?!? Now it did not appear that the tracks were actually in use - in fact I think they didn't even cross over the median, and I have to assume that there is a decent reason they haven't removed them, but still, it was odd. 3) It was about 5:30 or so, and I was getting hungry. I wanted some more Arby's, and saw some here in Madison, but didn't feel like stopping here, since I didn't want to get caught up in any rush-hour type traffic.

So I headed west on US 14 into western Washington. My passing on the copious amounts of Arby's in Madison would turn out to burn me, as the burgs of W WI had nary a fast food restaurant. I went through Iowa (#55) and crossed the Wisconsin River into Sauk (#56). Crossing the Wisconsin again on WI 133 put me into Richland (#57). WI 133 paralleled the river on the south side and a few miles in, I came across this:




I always love signs like this. There was actually a better one, indicating that I was in fact travelling simultaneously both north and south, but by the time I saw it, recognized its coolness, looked for my camera, found it, and turned it on, I had passed it. I then sat, with camera poised, looking for another reassurance marker, but this was the best I could do. That picture would be in Grant (#58), and shortly after I crossed the Wisconsin (again) back into Richland County. Some (nicely marked and nicely maintained!) county roads led me back to US 14 near Boaz, and I again headed west, into Vernon County (#59). Right after the Richland-Vernon border, I had marked on my maps 3 potential out and backs to get Crawford County. The first 2 were local roads, and since I wasn't sure the quality of the roads or the circumstances in which I'd be passing by, I also had marked out US 61 which I could use, though it was about 2-3 miles longer of a one-way journey. I passed on the first one (McKittrick Rd, no relation to the McKetrick supplicants, of course), but then took a gamble on County Road X.




As you can see, no problems there - Crawford (#60) was mine. I have been very impressed with the quality of the marked county roads in Wisconsin. You can also see that it's starting to rain. It would rain off and on for the next several hours. You can also see that it's still (a little) light out. I had realized that the day before - by travelling west, I would be extending my day slightly. This is something that I've thought about before, living on the very western edges of a timezone. A few examples - sunset yesterday in Cincinnati was 7:57 p.m, compared to 7:01 in Portland, Maine. The difference from Chicago and La Crosse, Wisconsin is about 15 minutes, which I guess isn't a whole lot....

Speaking of La Crosse, I continued on US 14 / 61 West into La Crosse County (#61). After passing a McDonalds in Viroqua, La Crosse seemed to have the full gamut of fast food restaurants, so I kept my eyes peeled for my coveted Arby's. No dice. Though actually there does appear to be an Arby's there - it's just not on the main road so I didn't see it. I did see just about everything else though.

After going through La Crosse, US 14 / 61 turned west and crossed over the Mighty Mississip' into Houston County, Minnesota (#62) and the Apple Capital of Minnesota, La Crescent. Did you know that La Crescent was the Apple Capital of Minnesota? Did you even know that you could grow apples in an area with winters as cold as Minnesota? Well, now you do.

Minnesota was one of 15 states I had never previously visited. I think the last time I picked up a new state was when I made Carolyn drive to North Carolina back in 1998. It's getting a lot harder to pick up new states. The closest "new" states for me to visit would be SC, NJ or DE, all of which are somewhere around 10 hours one way from home. For your eternal reference, the other 11 remaining states I need are AK, AR, HI, ID, MT, ND, NM, NV, OK, SD and VT.

Conveniently, US 14 / 61 also crosses into Winona County (#63) before I said good-bye to Minnesota and headed back over Big Muddy on I-90 East back into 'Sconsin. I-90 was interesting. As I mentioned earlier, it had been raining off and on for awhile now, and here it started pouring VERY hard. Combined with the trucks on the road, it made things a little hairy for awhile. In any case, I soldiered on into Monroe (#64) and Juneau (#65). By now, I had reached the magical 9 p.m. hour so I could call home for free. Carolyn and I were talking, and she was Googling about to find me an Arby's nearby and lo, there was none. She kept saying "No man, it's Madison, you gotta go to Madison" Yes, that would be the same Madison where I actually was back at dinner time... So then I changed tacks and decided I would opt for a Wendy's. While she was looking for Wendy's, I saw a sign saying there was one at Exit 87, which was where I was getting off the highway anyways. Sometime around here we hung up so she could go to bed, and I was off on my own for the night.

I get off at Exit 87 on to WI 13. Well, actually, the exit snuck up on me and I flew right past it, and had to slam on the brakes and throw it in reverse. Luckily I didn't pass it by much and the highway was deserted, so that was not a problem and I crossed the Wisconsin River (again) into Columbia (#66) and entered into the city of Wisconsin Dells. I had heard of the place as a popular timeshare destination when I was looking into that, and it was in fact quite touristy.

Right away, I spotted Wendy's off to the right and made my way over there. Ooh suerie it was closed or shut down or in some other way not open for my Junior Bacon Cheeseburger needs. All my needs? Yes, all my needs. To rub salt in my wounds, as I looped around this frontage road back on to the main highway, I saw this:




Now that's just cruel. I didn't have a map with me, so I just had to keep going on WI 13. At one point I wasn't sure if I had crossed county lines without a sign, but kept going and before too long, I made my way into Adams (#67). I turned around at the first available driveway which was the aptly named "Wisconsin Dolls Gentlemen's Club. I didn't stop in... :-)

Back on the main drag, I stopped to get gas and picked up some Taco Bell. My designed route called for me to get back on to I-90 East and follow that back home, so that's what I did.




[Fade to black]



[DRUM BEAT]
ONE MORE TIME!!!!!

Click on the link if you don't get that.

When I was driving out west of Madison, I realized that the end of my route had me going back about 2 hours home through counties that I had already been to. It seemed like such a waste, when there were plenty of counties to the east that "needed" to be visited. It even looked like it wouldn't be that much out of the way. So, after a quick confirming call to Jim, I had a brief route mapped out.

I did get back on I-90 East, but when 90/94 split at Madison, instead of continuing on 90, I got on to I-94 towards Milwaukee. Getting off on WI 26 North, I went through Watertown into Dodge (#68). Had I been planning this at home, I could have figured out a quicker way to cut off some time, but on my physical map, the best I could do was take WI 16 East, north of town. And either I missed the county line marker or there wasn't one, but as expected, a look at the map now indicates definite Dodge-ness. WI 16 turned into a limited-access road as I entered Waukesha (#69), and then I took WI 190 East. About a mile in, my plan told me to take a left on WI 74 North, but when I got there, my only option was to the right on to WI 74 East. I was unsure as to whether or not this was going to take me where I wanted to go, so I continued straight and ended up turning left (north) on to CR YY / Pilgrim Road. This was slow going as it was city roads through the northwestern suburbs of Milwaukee - that would be Milwaukee (#70). I turned on to County Line Road, and did an out and back into Ozaukee (#71) and then Washington (#72). I went back and then got on to the highway of US 45 south and followed the highways back into Chicago, picking up Racine (#73) and Kenosha (#74) on the way back, leaving the total for the evening at 21 new counties (19 Wisconsin and 2 Minnesota).

Chicago Trip, Day 3

I finished with my training a bit early - the instructor let us out at about 4:30. I had done some studying up at lunch about the IPass system for tolls here. One annoying fact about being an out-of-towner here in Chicagoland is that tolls are double if you are paying by cash (as opposed to through the automatic IPass system). So the first thing I did after class was bust down to the Illinois Toll Authority building and pick myself up an IPass. Luckily it's about 2 miles from the class location.
The people there were surly in a BMV-esque way. It was actually kind of funny. I felt kind of bad for this one lady that was dealing with me. She looked too young to have that kind of defeated attitude. I mean given it was 4:55 (they closed at 5) but I just felt like telling her "Don't let them get to you!"
Anyway, I set out on I-88, the Ronald Reagan E-W Tollway, westbound, for about 80 miles, picking up Kane (#44), DeKalb (#45), Ogle (#46), Lee (#47) and Whiteside (#48).
It was about 30 miles out on I-88 when I realized the first major annoyance of the day. The particular CD of my audiobook that I was listening to ran out. So I reached for the case to pull out the next one and... I had left it in my hotel room. After all the careful preparations ear-lie in the morning to ensure that I could leave straight from training, I was definitely annoyed. I guess there could have been more annoying things to forget (like my map book!) but still. So not only was it annoying to not have something to listen to as I roamed the Illinois countryside, I was (and am) actually very interested in finding out what was happening next. I actually listened to the disc again, even though I had already heard it, but after that I just channel surfed on the radio, listening to the fine radio stations of Dubuque, Iowa, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin and the like.
I got off of I-88 just west of the end of the tollway, going north on IL-40 through Rock Island and Sterling, crossing over the mighty Rock River. It was here that I got some dinner, scoring a beef and cheddar combo meal at Arby's. I had been looking forward to some Arby's but had not been able to find one at an appropriate meal-like time until now.
IL-40 took me into Carroll (#49), and just north of Milledgeville, I pulled my first audible of the trip. The route as designed had me continuing on IL-40 into Lanark. But as I looked at the road signs and the actual physical map I had gotten from AAA, it looked like IL-40, instead of heading north as I desired, went more northwesterly to Mount Carroll. It seemed like the road that I had marked as IL-40 actually turned into "Benson Road" when IL-40 turned left. So when I got to that intersection, I hoped that I was not going to be making a Gallia or CR 650 E-style blunder and continued straight. No problems - I got to Lanark and after a brief jog on US-52, continued north on IL-73 into Stephenson (#50).
Took that for about 20 miles to US-20 at which point I turned left to pick up Jo Daviess (#51). A few notes about Jo Daviess. #1 - I think it is definitely among the frontrunners for Illinois counties to substitute in a "NO! SLEEP! TIL PREBLE!"-type chant. Cmon, say it with me - "NO! SLEEP! TIL JO DAVIESS!!!". Plus it's actually in the corner of the state, so it kind of makes sense as a potential EFILC ending county. #2 - About 5 miles in, I passed the sign for "Welcome to Jo Daviess County" in big letters, followed by "Soil and Conservation District" in smaller type. At first glance, I thought I had reached the county line, only to realize that it was not the actual county line, which was about another mile down the road. I am not sure why the Soil and Conservation district borders don't line up with the ACTUAL county borders but I am going to ascribe it to the fact that apparently ILDOT, like its ODOT brethren, have a problem with me and my county goals. #3 - I am sure you are wondering who in the heck Jo Daviess is? As usual, Wikipedia does not disappoint. Turns out that although his last name was actually spelled Daveiss, it is uniformly spelled Daviess in the places named after him.
Back east on US-20 and north on IL-73, I shortly approached the Wisconsin border, where IL-73 turned into Green County Wisconsin (#52) County Road M. A brief observation on the different ways that different states name and number (and letter!) their roads. Some states (Kentucky and Virginia, I'm looking at you!) have TONS of state numbered roads. It seems like every little road from Middle of Nowhere, Kentucky to EAST Middle of Nowhere, Kentucky has its own state numbered designation. Other states are a little more conservative. In states like Ohio, it seems like there are virtually no county road designations (though I do remember an old exit sign on I-71 southbound at about mile marker 26 offering a mile marker for "Warren Co Rd 1", which I can only assume is either Fields Ertel road or Mason-Montgomery - said sign has now been covered over). From my days visiting my cousins in Wisconsin, I had remembered that Wisconsin was all about the lettered county roads. I continued on CR M for awhile, then took a left on to CR B, which I followed into Lafayette (#51) (nicely marked!). Back on CR B, I went until I saw a sign saying End CR B. Uhhhhhh. My route said nothing about this - just a turn onto WI 69 South. The end sign was at a 4-way intersection, so I could have gone straight, but I took a gamble and hung a right, and although there were no junction signs or anything like that, there was a WI 69 reassurance sign right away.
WI 69 turned into IL 26 at the border (back into Stephenson Co) and then I followed US 20 Eastbound into Winnebago (#52) and Boone (#53).
Which led to Annoyance #2. Somehow my I-Pass transponder is not working. So I gotta call and fix that before they send the cops after me to bust me for toll violations.
Total trip metrics were 289 miles, 12 (new) counties and about 5 hours - I pulled into my hotel a little before 10. Annoyingly (#3!) my night time minutes do not start until 9 pm CENTRAL time when I am here, so I can't call home (for free anyways) until 10 pm their time.

Chicago Trip, Day 2

Today was an off day, being Sunday. I had decided that I was going to do the whole keep the Sabbath Day holy and not drive around for more counties.

Still, I can't help it if there just HAPPEN to be new counties to visit on my way into Chicago. Those would be Marshall (#41) and Putnam (#43)

What happened to #42, you are certainly asking yourselves?

Well, Stark (#42) was just SO close, I was sure God wouldn't mind a little 1/2 mile out and back :-D

Also 6 counties on I-80 that I had previously been to

Chicago Trip, Day 1

Started out bright and early on Saturday morning. Actually I had packed most everything the night before but I loaded things off and set off to Enterprise. I got there about 15 minutes earlier. Oddly enough, just as I got there, 3 Enterprise employees showed up in cars. There was just something odd about their timing - kind of like a SWAT team operation or something. The manager (I guess?) told me that normally he would let me in early but they had a lot of stuff to take care of. They let me in around 9 and we spent some time filling out paperwork. He asked where I was going and I said Chicago. So as I'm reviewing the paperwork, one of the boxes says something like "States where the rental is valid" and it has OH, IN, IL. So I was like, I'll need to add Kentucky. And Wisconsin. And Missouri. And Minnesota. I told him "I'm taking a roundabout way to Chicago". After everything was signed and such, I was off in my VW Jetta at about 9:14. Oh, who am I kidding, I wrote it down, it was EXACTLY 9:14.

The first part of the trip was uneventful, at least route-wise. It was eventful from the standpoint of me trying to figure out how to work the car. Oh, okay the wipers are over there? Oh and the cruise is down here? And how do I pause the CD player?

One strange thing about the Jetta is that it apparently has a big key



I was not sure if this was a VW thing or if it was an Enterprise thing. You know how like when you go to the bathroom at a gas station how they give you the key with the giant thing attached to it so you don't lose / steal it? I thought maybe that was the deal with the rental car. It was not till the next day that Jim's cousin Kristina, upon learning I had a Jetta, coveted holding my key, told me that was just how it was, and showed me that if you pressed the little button the key will fold down into just a remote. Neat.

Anyways, I headed down 71 towards Louisville. This is the first time I can remember actually going into Louisville. Usually I get off north of town to go to the temple in Crestwood.

So the first novel thing of my route is heading north into Indiana on I-65 to pick up Clark County, IN (#1). I got off at the first exit (Exit 0). I did take a picture of me on this bridge (well a picture out the window of the car while I was on the bridge - I didn't actually stop the car, get out, stop another car, and have that person get out to take a picture of me on the bridge). Anyway the picture is not very exciting to look at. I looked for somewhere to get gas here but couldn't find anywhere readily accessible, so I just got back on I-65 and then I-64 West, where I crossed the Ohio River (again) into Floyd County, IN (#2)

Having crossed the Ohio River twice within a span of 10 minutes, that got me to wondering how many crossings of the Ohio River there are, and how many I had been on. I knew that the Wikipedia would not let me down, and of course there is an article entitled "List of crossings of the Ohio River" (of course there is). As it turns out, if you don't count rail crossings, ferries, the Purple People bridge, and other dumb things that only idiots would count, there are 57.

With the 2 I had just crossed (the JFK Memorial bridge and the Sherman Minton bridge) that brings my total up to:

That would be, in order from west to east:

• The aforementioned Sherman Minton bridge and JFK Memorial bridges
• The Brent Spence, Clay Wade Bailey, Taylor Southgate, Daniel Carter Beard, and Combs-Hehl bridges in Cincinnati. I don't think I've ever been on the Roebling or Caroll C Cropper bridges
  
• William H Harsha bridge
• US Grant bridge
• The Simeon Willis bridge
  
• The Silver Memorial bridge
• Moundsville bridge
• Interstate 470 bridge
• Fort Henry bridge
• Veterans Memorial bridge
  

So, counting the John James Audubon Bridge and the Shawneetown bridge that I would hit later on in the day and the Cairo Ohio River bridge that I am planning to hit in 2 weeks, that makes 18. Sounds like a worthy new obsession... :-)

Anyways, I continued westwards on I-64 across nearly the whole width of Indiana, Harrison, Crawford, Perry, Dubois, Spencer, Warrick, and Gibson (#3-9). There were 2 potential out and backs from my Indiana route that I could have done (to pick up Pike and Orange counties). But, since I didn't want to get to my destination too late, I didn't get them. Looking back, I wish I had. Oh well.

On to I-165 south towards Evansville for Vanderburgh (#10) and continuing on to US 41 The Pennyrile parkway into Henderson, Kentucky, immediately getting the county of the same name (#11) as well as Webster (#12) a few minutes later.

KY 56 eastbound snagged me McLean (#13) and Daviess (#14)



Don't worry - I took that picture after I had already crossed the county line and was turning around. After turning around, I stayed on KY 56 until I crossed the Ohio for the 4th and final time of the day into Shawneetown, Illinois - Union KY (#15) and Gallatin IL (#16)

Having been burned before, with these routes, I was trying to avoid county and local roads as much as possible. After crossing into Illinois, I came up on the first of two stretches where county roads just had to be done. This one went well, and I followed them into Hardin (#17) and Pope(#18). Do you detect the foreboding foreshadowing hanging in the air?

Back on main / state roads, I meandered through Shawnee (#19), back into Gallatin and then on to White (#20). Then I took a brief out and back on "County Road 300 N". Trying to overcome my Gallia county flashbacks, I soldiered on. While I'm not sure I would have enjoyed making this trip at night, in the daytime it wasn't that bad.



That be the border of Hamilton County, Illinois (#21). Hamilton, Hamilton... Killed by a bullet from Aaron Burr's gun...

After a brief detour on I-64 East crossing the Wabash River into Posey county, IN (#22), I continued my way north on IL 1, through Edwards (#23) and Wabash (#24). Then, just north of the booming metropolis of Keensburg, I made that fateful turn onto "County Road 700 E". The plan called for 13 miles on that road, then a jog on CR 11 and then continuing north onto E 640 N / CR 6.

It was going well at first. Then....


Ruh roh. Click on the picture if you can't see it, but it's a road closed sign. Annoyingly enough, the other direction I wanted to go at that intersection would have been right, but that too had a Road Closed sign. Since turning around is for wimps, I went left. As far as I can figure out, that intersection would be somewhere around here.

Unlike last time, the maps I had printed out and brought with me were not quite as detailed as I would have liked them to be. After turning left, I drove for awhile, then turned right on CR 500 E, drove on that for awhile, and then that road gave me a "Dead End", so I turned left (on to CR 1500), then right on CR 400. I was able to follow that up to CR 11, then into the hustle and bustle of Lancaster, where I was able to pick up CR 640 and get back on schedule. Various other county roads got me through Lawrence (#25), Crawford (#26), Jasper (#27) and Richland (#28) without any more trouble than I was going about 55 mph and couldn't stop to take a left before I passed one of the turns, so I had to stop and back up. Twice.

Estimating route times is not a very exact science, since it's so hard to know just from looking at Mapquest what kind of road it REALLY is going to be. Things that are marked the same online can range anywhere from a straight, flat road that you can easily go 65 on to a dirt or gravel road in the middle of nowhere. I had lost some time early on when I had to stop for gas. While not quite GOASIS-like, this particular station a) did not have functioning credit card readers and b) had pumps that dispensed gasoline at approximately 2 drops per hour. I was probably there for about 15 minutes or so. Oh, who am I kidding - I was there for 14 minutes, between 11:03 and 11:17 a.m. Anyway, I had been ahead of schedule for awhile, but these little road closed shenanigans set me back about 15 minutes.

But the rest of the trip was uneventful. One odd thing was on US 50 westbound through Clay (#29) and Marion (#30) counties. There were all these old bridges and road closed signs parallel to the actual US 50 road. I assume they were old sections of US 50, and I was interested to see that someone else had just about exactly the same thinking I did

An uneventful county road out and back snagged me Wayne (#31) and a little bit west of that I snapped the following picture.



That will only be funny to you if you a) know what street I live on and b) know what my basement looks like

Next was an out and back on I-57 for Jefferson (#32) and continuing on US 50 for Clinton (#33), upon which I doubled back on US 50 and it was US-51 time. I followed it north for about 150 miles, nearly all of which was 55 mph +, going through Shelby (#34), Christian (#35), Macon (#36), DeWitt (#37) and McLean (#38). Oh and Fayette too which I had already visited and therefore does not count. Then it was onto I-74 into Tazewell (#39) and Peoria (#40) where I arrived about an hour ahead of schedule. Okay, it was 1 hour and 16 minutes ahead of schedule.

Chicago Trip, Day 0

So I am being sent to Chicago for a week of training. Actually 2 (non-consecutive weeks). Actually as I write this I am already IN Chicago.

Naturally, my first thought upon finding out that I was going to Chicago for training was not "Cool, the chance to learn job applicable skills" or "Sure will miss my family while I'm gone" though both of those things are true. Rather, it was more along the lines of "Holy crap am I going to pick up some counties!"

It was decided we would drive up. Since the training is just more of a 9-5 thing, I figured that I could use my evenings (plus the trips to and fro) to score more counties. My original goal when trying to set things up was to hit every county in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. However, I have since pared things down (as Carolyn says, "The counties will still be there")

Originally it was going to be me and two other guys from work driving up. So I was trying to figure out how I could "umm borrow?" the car at nights. But then the one guy couldn't go up, and then the other guy's boss said they couldn't spend the money and then voila I was driving up all by myself!

So I spent a bit of time cooking up some routes for county, county, county madness! Stay tuned. Let's just say that my Illinois is preparing to look AWFUL blue.

Here is a before shot of my county map